Some owners of Apple TVs have been reporting an issue with watching streaming YouTube videos, in which attempting to play any YouTube clip through the Internet section of the Apple TV’s main menu brings up the following error message: “No content was found. There is a problem communicating with YouTube. Try again later.”

YouTube has now also rolled out a new mobile design which borrows from Cosmic Panda and adds some of its own unique features to the mobile YouTube experience. The new mobile design can be enabled by visiting m.youtube.com/new_visual_design, and is strictly opt-in right now, just like Cosmic Panda, meaning it will not be automatically enabled when visiting YouTube and must be manually activated.

Shonen Knife knows how to “give the people what they want,” as The Kinks would sing. Seven albums in ten years. Worldwide tours to promote almost every release. Daily Tweets. Yes, Tweets. YouTube. It’s a different world for bands these days, in which technology brings them closer than ever to their fan-base. So close, in fact, that the women of Shonen Knife were willing to take some time before their recent Buffalo show to talk to me about their use of Apple products and social media.

YouTube has ventured into the world of online film rental, offering five (yes, five) movies available to watch for just $3.99 each. The films currently on offer are from independent film makers, meaning that, at present, there are no blockbuster titles. Will they be coming in the future? We hope so. Will we be able to watch them through the YouTube iPhone application? Doubtful, but we can hope.

It was obvious that when the iPhone 3G S was released that YouTube would see a nice little increase in traffic. Just as Flickr received a huge amount of traffic from iPhones uploading straight to their site, so did YouTube with video when the iPhone 3GS launched. There are already hundreds to thousands of videos on YouTube from the iPhone 3G S, and one was even used in a newscast.

It was a sad day when Hulu’s advertisers decided that they needed to pull themselves from Boxee. The only ones they are really hurting are themselves (and perhaps Hulu in the process). But never fear, you have various options on how to watch Hulu, none of which involve actually going to Hulu.com.

Apple has paid for a huge ad on the YouTube homepage. This is only the second ad of this size, the first being an ad for the Spore video game. In doing this, Apple will reach a very large audience of its target demographic. But will it actually rope them in?

I find that ads that greatly interfere with my experience on any website backfire intensely, leaving me with a dislike for that company, and not an interest in their product. As it is, this ad isn’t incredibly annoying, but it does shove the content down a considerable amount, possibly blocking it from view on some smaller-screened computers.

What do you think? Annoying or not? Video after the break.

Videos mocking and showing off Apple and its products have been on YouTube forever, but just recently (September 25th, 2008), a channel claiming to be the official channel has showen up on the web. The Official Apple’s Youtube channel on the popular video sharing site YouTube looks rather skeptical. Apple generally doesn’t join other sites, so this may not be theirs. And, with the backround picture, it doesn’t look too conviencing. If Apple was to join YouTube, or if this really is their channel, they could use it to put up tutorials and ad campaigns, and even host a VLog. Currently, the channel hosts 25 videos, but we would expect many more since these went up in the first few days.

I’m not a YouTube kind of guy. I’m just not entertained by kittens falling off things, toddlers explaining the plot to Star Wars in their oh-simple-and-innocent way, or high school kids beating each other up or making out. Or both. Most YouTube users need to learn an important rule of entertainment…just because something’s entertaining to you and your friends, that doesn’t mean it’s actually, you know, entertaining.

That being said, there are a lot of wonderful videos to be found, both amateur and (usually uploaded illegally) professional. Old music videos I’ve long forgotten (Russel Mulcahy, we need you now) top the list, but every now and again I also find something new from a group of budding filmmakers that makes me wonder how so many professionals got (and retain) their jobs. Those are great moments, finding something like that, but to share your find, you’ve no choice but to just e-mail URLs or embed the video in your blog. What if you want to show someone on your iPhone or iPod, or even burn a DVD to pass around? There are various options out there—some easier than others, some more reliable than others, some more legal than others—but one of the best options available to Mac users right now is Web2 Delight.

YouTube has been quietly re-encoding some of its videos, users have found. Where possible, they have increased the videos’ resolution from 320×240 to 480×360. They have also made improvements to the sound, including AAC audio instead of the mono sound on previous encodings. These up-conversions are happening mainly to newly uploaded videos, but they are more »